Fresh Ink in Competitor Magazine

Thank you Competitor Magazine for featuring my Almond & Quinoa Bliss Bars in your May issue.  I was honored to share pages with Cafe McClean out of Salt Lake City and No Meat Athlete from Maryland.  Make your own Bliss Bars at home with a few simple ingredients.  I always have a stash in the freezer for lazy mornings or training days.  Recipe here.

 

Dish - Fruit is Fast Food

Spotted this on Facebook and had to share.  Taken somewhere in Ontario. 

Lemon Thyme Whole Wheat Scones

I love scones, well all pastries for that matter.  My sister and I devoured the whole grain, buttery and flaky scones in Ireland daily last year.  But scones in the U.S. are typically super sweet and made with white bleached flour.  That is not the best way to start off a work day.
So, to satisfy my Irish pastry desires I set out to make a healthy scone.  I knew the base was going to be whole wheat pastry flour.  Do you use it yet?  It's amazing and can be used in breads, pizza dough, cookies, etc.  Go splurge on some right now or order my favorite online.
Now, what to put in the scone?
- I added toasted walnuts and almonds for a little crunch and texture. (I like textures, in my food, on my clothes, on art, anything really unless it's chocolate mousse.  Dark chocolate mousse should be smooth as silk!)
- TDH loves lemon, I mean, really loves lemon.  I experimented with the juice of two lemons and it gave the scones a bit of a kick at the end.
- Last but not least I added my favorite ingredient of Spring, fresh thyme.  My little thyme plant I bought at Sprouts was well worth the $2.50 investment, plus it looks pretty on the porch.

Alright, here's the recipe friends.  Feel free to swap out the nuts for a dried fruit or flax seeds or use a mix of flours.

Lemon Thyme Whole Wheat Scones

Ingredients
1/4 c agave
7 tablespoons milk or cream

2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c toasted, chopped nuts
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
11 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 lemons, juiced

1 egg, whisked

- Preheat the oven to 400F degrees, rack in the top 1/3.
- Toast nuts in a oven or toaster oven (another kitchen essential you should invest in) for 5-8 minutes until fragrant.  Cool and chop.
- Mix agave and cream together in a small bowl.
- Combine flour, baking powder, salt, thyme and nuts together in a bowl.  Using a pastry blender, fork or your hands cut the cold butter into the flour mixture.  Mix together until the butter is the size of peas.
- Add the milk/cream mixture and lemon juice.  Mix with a wooden spatula until the dough just comes together - don't over mix.
- Flour your cutting board or countertop and kneed the dough once or twice.  Shape into a rectangle or square if you prefer square scones or into a circle and cut pieces into mini pie slices.  Cut the pieces on the smaller side.
- Line two pans with parchment paper.  Place scones on pans with 1/4-inch distance between each of them.
- Whisk 1 egg in a small bowl.  Brush each scone generously with the egg wash.  (You can skip this step if you are pressed for time but it does give the scones a shiny top.) 
- Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until golden along the bottom and tops.

Makes 20 scones.

Bell Pepper Boats

I'm headed to Belize in 6 days, which means its bikini season in March!  Yikes.  Here's a little recipe I've been using a lot lately to clean up my eating.  My goal for the week is to be a Lean & Green fighting machine.  It's going to be a busy week before I leave.  We just launched a new website and collection at Borelli and I have a few freelance projects to wrap up.  Happy Monday ya'll.  

Bell Pepper Boats (gluten-free, raw, vegan)

Ingredients
1 bell pepper
hummus
garlic paste
sprouted chickpeas or any other bean or vegan protein
spinach, chopped
green onion, chopped (white and green parts)
sun-dried tomatoes, slivered
sunchoke, chopped
nutritional yeast flakes
first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

- Wash bell pepper, slice down the middle, scrape out seeds.
- Spread hummus and garlic paste inside each bell pepper half.
- Stuff boats with spinach, chickpeas, green onion, sunchoke and sun-dried tomatoes. 
- Sprinkle nutritional yeast flakes, salt and pepper. 
- Drizzle olive oil.
- Serve with a salad of the veggies you have leftover.

Makes 1 bell pepper boat, good for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Cinnamon, Nutella and Soy Latte

Rise and shine!  Satisfy your sugar cravings today with this tasty latte.  Easy to make, easy to drink and way less of a sugar crash than a bag full of maltodextrin, yellow 5, blue 6, fake sugar candy.

1-2 shots of espresso or 1 c coffee
1/2 c soy, almond or coconut milk
a dash of cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutella

1.  Make the espresso or coffee as you heat up the milk over the stove
2.  Whisk in cinnamon
3.  Whisk in nutella until it melts and you make the milk froth up
4.  Pour milk mixture over espresso or coffee and savor each sip

*If you don't like coffee this would also be good with Rooibos tea. 

heat milk

whisk in cinnamon and nutella

pour milk mixture over coffee

savor each sip like you are sitting at a cafe in Paris

Leftover Oatmeal Muffins

When I make homemade oatmeal for breakfast I make a big batch for the week.  But by the 4th day I find every excuse NOT to eat the leftovers.  No matter what I add, fruit, nuts, agave, honey, even nutella it's no longer appetizing.  I'm over it.  So, this morning when TDH requested muffins I used the leftover oatmeal as the base of the recipe.  And the result, he asked for seconds :)

Ingredients
1 1/2 c leftover oatmeal (mine was laced with strawberries and agave syrup)
1 c milk (dairy, soy, rice or nut)
1 large egg (Egg replacer if you are vegan)
1/3 c melted butter (dairy or Earth Balance)
1/2 c plus 1 TBS brown sugar
3/4 c unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 medium bananas, cut into small chunks (the riper the better)

12 cup muffin tin
12 unbleached muffin cups

Steps
1.  Preheat oven to 425*
2.  Mix oatmeal, egg, butter and sugar.
3.  Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon onto the the oat mixture and stir briefly.  Fold in chopped bananas.  Do not overmix, muffin batter should be lumpy.  Using an icecream scoop or big spoon fill the muffin tins about 2/3 full.
4.  Bake for 19-23 minutes or until golden brown.
5.  Eat muffins within a day or two.  Share with neighbors, the office or the mailman.   

Strawberry Yogurt Pancakes

option 1

option 2

TDH loves, loves, loves pancakes, well any breakfast food for that matter.  For me, breakfast is my least favorite meal of the day.  Opposite foodies can get along in a marriage right?  :)

I’m usually rushing off to a work meeting at a Pilates, Crossfit or Yoga class in the morning.  Bars and oatmeal are quick but get old SUPER fast.  These pancakes are perfect for a Saturday or Sunday morning.

Accompaniments by region

Los Angeles ~ mimosa with a sprig of fresh mint

NYC ~ hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps

Las Vegas ~ bloody mary

St Bart’s ~ champagne

British Virgin Islands – dark 'n' stormy 

Ingredients

1 c whole-wheat pastry flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 c soy, almond, rice or dairy milk

½ c plain yogurt plus 1 cup

1 c sliced strawberries

Maple syrup

cinnamon

Steps

-       mix together flour, baking soda and baking powder. 

-       in a different bowl, combine milk, egg, and yogurt with a whisk.

-       pour liquid into flour mixture and stir together.

-       fold in strawberries.

-       heat a greased pan on medium, fry, turning once.

-       while cakes are cooking, mix 1 cup yogurt with 1 teaspoon maple syrup and smidge of cinnamon.

-       as an alternative to a normal stack of pancakes, layer a spoonful of the yogurt/syrup/cinnamon mixture between 2 pancakes.

     Serves 2-3

     They store in the fridge well, just fry em’ up briefly before eating Monday or Tuesday.  These kept me full for hours!  

toast!

view from our deck, LA can be pretty!

Chocolate Croissant

Start the holiday weekend off right with a chocolate croissant.  These babies are from Gourmet Tart Co.  our favorite bakery in Salt, an adorable suburb of Galway, Ireland.  

Try not to drool!